A Cold Wind Blows

Chapter 11

Click Clack, Full Stack

A needle drop, a crackle reverberating across the walls of the common-room, and then the sweet sounds of gradual music echoing out from the tower speakers adjacent Glacier’s stereo unit. The song that filled the air was that of a sombre tune, piano rich, the ivory keys pressed down upon rather heavily. There was an emotion behind the song, and it only grew tenfold as a certain pegasus cranked the volume dial about three-quarters of the way to the maximum; the booming of a stallion’s voice over the piano playing caused the house to shudder some. Glacier was so happy Amethyst was out of the house right now. He always hated when Glacier blared his music as loud as he could.

Walking away from the stereo unit, Glacier walked slowly over to his trusty typewriter. Sitting down, the stallion drew out some paper, placed it upon the platen, and proceeded to feed it through the mechanism thereafter. The sound the paper made as it was fed through the mechanical machine was snuffed out by the sound of the music floating around the room. The hammers came down upon the paper next, Glacier beginning to write out the beginning of the next chapter of his great work. The romance was reaching a peak, though there had been conflict just recently that had bumped the story-line off and caused some heartache and grief for the main character and his endeavour. But what fun would it be if everything was perfect.

Glacier typed away, smacking his hooves against the keys in a seemingly reckless manner. He would type a few lines, pause, then continue on his way, not fully knowing where he was going to take his story next. But sooner than not, the stallion was hit with a stoke of pure brilliance and off he trailed, not stopping for anything. Hours had seemingly came and went in rapid succession and he had already been sitting there for something along the lines of three hours. The song that had been playing was now long over, the first side of the LP he had put on crackling away as the needle popped in and out of the record’s lead-out groove.

The stallion looked down to the paper he held in his hooves, a smile on his face; it was one of complacency. He placed the paper in the pile of sheets that sat to his right, almost knocking over his now empty cup of coffee. Nothing like some morning coffee to really push your creative drive through the roof. Sometimes the caffeine rush was enough to make the stallion push on for far more than three hours, but he had been able to get out the end of his chapter and was satisfied enough with the results to stop for now. That, and he had somewhere to go. He had a computer to pick up, the bill still needing payment as well.

Standing from his desk, Glacier took the paper pile and tied a string around it skillfully with a wing and hoof. Proceeding to pick the pile up, he took the stack and threw it on his back, walking to the little closet to the left of his writing desk. Casting the door open for a mere moment, the stallion tossed his completed chapter on the third shelf from the bottom of a series of shelves. The shelving unit in the closet was ten shelves high and was stocked full of various papers, all of which contained the words of Glacier’s labour. Closing the door with a thunderous thud, the stallion took to the front door. Glacier took the modestly sized sack of bits that sat on the little table by the entryway, snatched his keys with one wing and grabbed his saddlebag with another. Throwing his saddlebag onto his back the stallion grunted slightly. He flicked open a pocket near the front of the bag and tossed the bits in, as well as tossed his keys in a pocket on the neighbouring side. With that, he departed his home, soon to return with a rather sweet piece of technology by his side.

2...

Some hours had passed now and Style was just finishing up work. He walked to the front door of the store, the shop’s keys drifting methodically through the air as if on a puppeteer’s string. He levitated them over to the door, grabbing the knob in his influence before twisting it slowly. He gently opened the door and exited The Beat Goes On and, with a few quick steps, moves and turns, the stallion had locked the store’s door and was now ready to head back home for the night.

“Oi, Style!” a particularly familiar voice called out to the stallion in question. He turned, slightly nervous and scared as to who it could have been there. But when he seen the icy-blue coat that matched his colt-friend’s he knew just who it was. Style beamed happily.

“Hey there, Ice Stream!” the stallion called out back to the icy-blue mare in question. “I didn’t think that I’d see you out so late. What’s up?”

The mare made her way up to Style and the two made their way down the road slowly towards Glacier’s home. “Well, I heard from Glacier today when he was in town. Something about a new, super cool thing that he bought that he just couldn’t wait to try out.” The mare smiled an incredibly goofy smile. “It’s been a little while since Glacier and I have hung out, so I figured it as good a time as any to come by and take a look-see at just what he was going on about.”

Even though the mare was beaming, Style could hear a pang of pain in her voice. He chalked it up to Glacier being so busy lately with his stories and with him himself that he hadn’t had all the time in the world for his best friend. He thought to himself that, perhaps, he should help Ice out and push Glacier back over towards her a little bit. He had been giving his undivided attention to him really, lacking on writing his stories as well, and his deadline on the newest few chapters was closing in fast!

“Well it’s a good thing that I’m heading over there too. Could always use the cheerful company along the way.” This made the mare beam even brighter and it caused Style to smile to himself. Ice was always rather jubilant if not rather bouncy in nature. She had a pep in her step as they both trotted towards his colt-friend’s abode and the energy the mare was giving off was rather contagious. Style had his own hop, skip, and sway as they continued down the way.

“Do you think Glacier has his head buried in his new computer-thingy already?” the mare asked with a giggled.

“Probably,” Style retorted with a slight chuckle. “I’m sure that that silly colt is head deep in some good reading about that thing, and is going to know far more than either of us by the time we get there.” He squinted slightly from the sun outside as he peered down to the mare with a look of questioning. “Question... Have you seen Amethyst at all today?”

“No...I can’t say that I have.” The mare looked up to him, her own look of question adorning her features. “How come?” she asked back.

“Huh?” the stallion said lazily.

“Why are ya’ asking where Amethyst is?” The mare then stopped and the stallion stopped with her, his height extremely prevalent with them standing so closely together and without the illusion of their canter. “Is there something neat-o going on that I don’t know about?”

“Actually, no...there isn’t.” The mare seemed to deflate a little bit, but Style quickly picked up the conversation to keep her mood from falling too far. “I ask because he said he was going to come by the shop today. Something about wanting to buy a gift for some-pony. Said he had to say sorry. But he never came by. I thought that maybe you would why he never showed up.” The stallion smiled down at the mare, flashing a little bit of teeth to brighten her spirits some more.

“I think I know who he wanted to get the gift for, but I wonder why he would have passed on doing that.” The mare looked the stallion in front of her up and down for a moment as she thought deeply. She couldn’t place her hoof on it. Why would he pass that up when he really needs to appologise. Regardless, the mare started her walk back up, looking off into the distance puzzled as she was.

Style picked up the pace and walked with the mare, although they walked in what was a rather heavy silence. Style was nervous to ask the mare as to whom the present could have been for, but reserved it as he thought it best to leave it be if she had not chosen to mention it of her own volition. So they continued to walk in absolute silence, save for the few times Style had taken the time to cough to try and break the monotony of it all. The mare, however, had not taken the hint and seemed rather content with continuing the remainder of the walk in the glory of it all, not exhibiting a single sound...ever. As void of sound as one could be when their hoof-steps pattered across the ground rather loudly. Style made a rather exasperated groan of discomfort and reeled back in a cringe of sorts but kept on walking at pace with Ice. She was Glacier’s best friend after all, no matter how eccentric she could be sometimes.

With a heavy sigh of relief as they approached Glacier’s abode, Style took the first steps onto the stoop, Ice following closely behind him. He fiddled with the door handle, trying to push it down before he remembered he had the gift of magic. However, just as he grabbed the handle with his magic, Ice was already bouncing in through the doorway proclaiming his colt-friend’s name at the top of her lungs...for all of Equestria to hear. Luckily no-pony lived close enough to hear her yell, and Style found comfort in that. He liked Ice, but boy was she a strange one. He could see why Glacier found a friend in her none-the-less, having listened to him talk about the countless times Ice had really been there for him when no-pony else was. And as he watched the mare jump in place and throw herself all over her best friend in a fit of joy, he smiled. Content graced his features in a way it hadn’t in many years. Being rejected for who you are by all you love, and being tossed to the side because you have to be a “real stallion” can really take a toll on a pony. Ponies have taken their own lives from such actions, fallen to the ground beaten and bruised from the words and hate of those around them; the ones who were supposed to love them. But Style was different. Glacier was too. And Ice was a pinnacle that you don’t need to judge the character of a single pony based on what you see on the outside, it is what is on the inside that really matters when you pick your friends—your family. Because, yes, you can pick your family too. And Glacier had done that as well; his brother was still here, and he picked Style to share his life story with, his passion, his love. Only some-pony truly willing to go beyond what society and others have to say could do that. And again, it’s not easy. No matter how easy he or Style may make it look, it really is not. Pain and suffering can came from that, and that needs to be remembered. Some things don’t come without sacrifice. But how big of a sacrifice you are willing to make comes with environment. Sometimes you just can’t afford to be yourself...

“Style, you came!” Glacier practically cheered, driving the stallion from his train of thought.

The tall unicorn grinned. “Of course I came. Had to see your new computer contraption working. Never seen these things in operation before. And,” he added, “I needed to see you. My night wouldn’t be complete without it”

“Such a charmer,” the pegasus replied with a cheeky and playful bump on the side of Style’s leg. He stuck out his tongue and motioned over to his new terminal that had been set up for not too long now. “And since you seem so into my little toy, there’s that too, tall-boy.”

The stallion walked over, taking the computer in, and looking upon it’s almost void screen. The only thing on it being a short prompt; a line of text that featured the letter ‘C’, a colon, a forward slash, and a greater than symbol in that order. After which an underscore was present and flashing. The screen was definitely less of a spectacle than the unicorn was suspecting, but it was certainly interesting still.

“I’m always interested in whatever you like, shorty-colt, but what is this? Whatcha do with it? Show me.” Style looked to Glacier and nodded over in the direction of the machine before smirking. “I wanna see what you can do now that you have all this power at your hooves.”

This caused Glacier to blush heavily but he took the helm, seating himself at his new workstation. Raising his hooves, he made his first set of keystrokes on his machine, and in the matter of a few moments an image popped up on the machine claiming to be some sort of word processing thing of sorts. Style and Ice were rather lost. Glacier however, was having a field day, and entered into the word processing program with a flourish of hoof work on the keyboard before him. He struck a few more keys and words began appearing on the screen as if he were typing them out on his trusty typewriter of old. And then he showed off a feature of the machine that subsequently blew Style and Ice’s minds. Glacier used the backspace key and removed words from the digital page without the need or use of correction tape or fluids.

“That’s crazy!” Style said in amazement.

Ice followed suit with a more mellow, “Wow...”

Never before had either of these ponies seen something so whimsical and magical in all their lives, save for the magic performed by unicorns themselves. But this was a machine, something unlike a pony in pretty much every way. How could it be so amazing? Regardless, the ponies stood their in shock as a smile spread across Glacier’s features and he continued to type out on the keyboard at his hooves, the satisfying clack of the keys sending shivers down his spine as he shot word after word down on the page before him. Making corrections in an instant, he was able to bring his words per minute up as well as keep his finished sheets rather tidy. Getting lost in his work now, Style snapped the stallion out of his state of bliss despite not wanting to. Glacier blinked at him a few times before he smiled warmly at him and relaxed.

“Sorry, I get lost sometimes.”

“Sure seems like it,” Style said, causing Glacier to blush. “But you sure got a heck of a lot down in that short period of time.” This didn’t help the stallion’s rapidly growing blush.

“Heya, Glacier!” Ice said, interrupting. He looked to his friend with the same smile he had given Style and awaited her to continue. “Where did Amethyst run off to? Style and I haven’t seen him at all today.”